Cape Breton Transgender Network Founder Joins Stonewall Riots Participant for Speaking Tour

ARICHAT - The head of the Cape Breton Transgender Network and the education coordinator of Cape Breton is viewing this year's Pride Month through a different lens. 

Veronica Merryfield has just returned to Cape Breton from a month-long Maritime-wide speaking tour with Martin Boyce, a participant in the 1969 Stonewall Riots that are said to have launched the modern LGBTQIA+ movement. 

At the same time, Merryfield is mindful of the actions of several American states - and even a neighbouring Maritime province, New Brunswick - in enacting legislation designed to remove or restrict the rights of several LGBTQIA+ constituencies, most notably the transgender community. With this in mind, the native of England and current resident of Marion Bridge considers this year's Pride Month activities to be more necessary and important than ever. 

"Our freedoms are at stake. Our very ability to be who we are is at stake," Merryfield told TELILE 24/7 host/producer Adam Cooke during an interview at the Telile Community Television studios in Arichat. 

Also featured on this week's episode is an interview and a special feature regarding ACTing Collectively, a research project originated in England and launched locally by researchers from Halifax-based Dalhousie University to gauge the experiences of seniors in Richmond County, Victoria County, and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. 

While the Cape Breton ACTing Collectively initiative, consisting of face-to-face interviews with senior citizens in eastern and central Cape Breton Island, was launched last September, the project currently has only half of the interviews that its originators have set out to interview. This has local project coordinator Celeste Gotell, the chair of the Seniors Take Action Coalition in Richmond County, urging local residents to speak to their aging relatives about participation in the initiative. 

This week's TELILE 24/7 episode also features a dramatization of the interview process involved in ACTing Collectively, featuring project interviewers Michele MacPhee and Debbie Samson. The mock interview was filmed at the Telile studios in Arichat.